The government has taken a step in these
directions and it has constituted a task force to carry out a
holistic review of national security and the country's preparedness
to face the myriad challenges. The task force headed by former
cabinet secretary Naresh Chandra comes a decade after the Kargil
Review Committee carried out a similar assessment in the wake of the
Indo-Pak conflict of 1999.

"The security challenges have
changed. India has moved on, our security challenges have evolved. It
is time to look at the national security situation in the light of
challenges ranging from cyber security to energy security,"
official sources explained.

The task force headed by Chandra,
who had been the Indian ambassador to the US and defence secretary,
has several experts from various fields including the military,
intelligence, nuclear and media. According to officials, the task
force has been given six months to submit it report.

The task
force comes almost a decade after Atal Behari Vajpayee government
appointed the Kargil Review Committee headed by strategic affairs
analyst, the late K Subrahmanyam. It recommended sweeping changes in
several areas of security, from military to intelligence, border
management to defence budgeting. Many of its recommendations were
implemented, but some were left out. Some others were not implemented
properly, such as the modernisation of infantry, border management
etc. The government's decision to appoint a new task force comes at a
time when there are widespread concerns about failures in defence
integration, lack of a cohesive response to the rise of China,
emergence of cyber threats, and the widening realities of India's
national security. There are also concerns about protecting energy
sources. The country's economic growth would significantly depend on
protecting the cyber assets as much as the physical border.

Members
of the task force include former Navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash,
former Air chief Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy, former chief of
the Department of Atomic Energy Anil Kakodkar, former chief of RAW KC
Verma, former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan G Parthasarathy
and former home secretary VK Duggal. Sources said the task force
would start work after Chandra, who is presently out of India,
returns.

Of late, India is ignoring the human rights of Indian
citizens in cyberspace. Many e-surveillance oriented projects have
been launched by Indian government without any procedural safeguards
and legal frameworks. The task force must also
ensurehuman
rights protection in Indian cyberspace.